As province moves to cool Toronto housing, what happens in Hamilton?

As Toronto’s extreme housing market gets attention from all three levels of government this week, what do the options they’re considering to cool things down in the GTA mean for Hamilton?

Toronto average home prices shot up 33 per cent in a year, March numbers showed. But Hamilton average prices rose at nearly the same fast clip: 28 per cent. Prices in the central city have more than doubled in the last decade.

And that growth is leading to anxiety in the market and pressure on buyers who are at the wrong end of an imbalance of supply and demand.

Provincial officials are expected to announce reforms Thursday that would make it easier to buy and rent homes in the Greater Toronto Area, to “stabilize” the housing market. And here in Hamilton, economists, realtors and tenant advocates are watching the government’s moves to see what, if any, effect it has on Hamilton’s runaway prices.